Today we're highlighting an outstanding Electrician Trainee, Mark Matias, currently enrolled in WECA's GetWired Electrician Trainee program. After meeting his fiancé's father, who owns and operates an electrical company, Mark's interest in becoming an electrician was sparked. He says, "I didn't just want a position somewhere where a robot could replace me in ten years," so Mark began looking for convenient, yet informative online classes that fit his schedule. Many programs failed to offer Mark what he was looking for, but when he found the GetWired program it seemed almost "too good to be true; the schedule was perfect and the classes extremely informative."

Within a couple classes, Mark noticed how positive his experience was. "The fact that you can sit in your own home, relax in a comfortable environment compared to being nervous and going to a new school, I think, is one of the keys to WECA's success. You get to learn without the anxiety so you can focus more." His experience in the 101 class taught him "the basic fundamentals of the PIE chart and learning how to search through the Index of the NEC, which I think are key points in your "forever" knowledge of becoming an electrician." Learning in the hands-on labs also became a positive experience for Mark in that "once you actually perform a lab hands-on, compared to picturing it or listening or reading about it, it becomes more of a habit and a nature. And you need that especially for a job like this. Like they say, practice makes perfect!"

Mark has some great advice for potential Electrician Trainee students. "Be dependable; we have to be there to figure out the problem and fix it... it takes a lot of knowledge and common sense and it definitely requires motivation. If it was easy, everyone would do it."